FAQ

The single motive of this project is to encourage people to write by improving the letter exchange process.

2. Who are you?

We are three friends who love writing and building web applications. We want to contribute to the letter writing community with our expertise in technology.

3. What is a chatbot?

A chatbot is a special kind of app that interacts with users through text. A key advantage is that a chatbot is simple to use. You do not need to download a new app and spend a lot of time learning how to use it. All the actions can be completed in a Facebook chatroom, making it ideal for simple applications (i.e. penpal matching in our case).

4. Why is the chatbot on Facebook only?

Developing a Facebook chatbot is much faster than creating a mobile app or online platform. We are currently a small team of three friends with limited resources. It is more time & cost effective to test the concept first with a simple application that works. We can then improve the Penso app according to the feedback from the community.

5. Will my Facebook profile be seen by other users?

No, your Facebook profile is private. It will not be seen by any users, including users in your successful matches. The penpal profile you set up inside the chatbot will be the only source of information other users can read about you.

6. Will the Penso app be available on other platforms in the future?

Yes, but we need you to tell us how do you want to use Penso (as a chatbot, mobile app, website etc.). Your feedback will give us a much more solid picture on what the penpal community wants.

7. What if I am not looking for penpals at the moment?

You are still welcome to participate and set up a penpal profile first! If you are currently not looking for new penpals, or you want to take a writing break at some point, you can press the “Unavailable” button under “Manage my profile” inside Penso. Once your profile is set to unavailable, your penpal profile will be hidden. It will not be shown to any users as one of their three profiles of the day.

When you want to find new penpals again, you can activate your profile by pressing the “Available for match” button.

8. I am not good at English. Can I join?

Sure! Many people learn new languages through letter exchange.

9. I really enjoy the Penso chatbot and love the idea of this project! Is there anything else I can help?

Yes, spread the news, invite your penpals and non-letter-writer friends to join and use Penso! The early user group involves mostly people who are already in the penpal community. It will also be great to see people starting their first letters through this project ; )